Laser damage threshold of super-polished fused silica at 355-nm is believed to be limited by localized defects associated with surface/substrate damage and contamination caused by the polishing process. Characterization of both the defects and their correlation with laser damage present a technical challenge: most of the existing characterization methods do not directly address absorption and thermo- mechanical response issues relevant to laser damage. In this work a dark-field photothermal microscopy (DPTM) with micron-level resolution is used for localization and identification of damage precursors for various fused silica surfaces. The experimental system uses the multiple UV lines from an Argon-ion laser. The samples studied are witness fused silica samples from various polishing vendors. In addition to DPTM, some of the samples are also studied using high-resolution optical microscopy and total internal reflection microscopy. The characterization result are then compared with laser damage testing data at 355-nm with a 7.5-ns pulse width. It is shown that while the DPTM data ca be correlated between damaged sites and DPTM defects is not obvious.